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Cargo is flowing once again at U.S. West Coast ports after several months of dysfunction thanks to a tentative labor agreement 10 days ago between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association. That’s a big relief to shippers and transportation providers who were only able to conduct a fraction of their normal international business during the nearly 10-month long contract negotiations. The man responsible for brokering the deal, U.S. Labor...

Container lines need to learn to live in an era of low growth and excess capacity, Maersk Line Chief Executive Officer Soren Skou said in an interview with American Shipper Sunday. Skou, who has headed the world’s biggest container line since the start of 2012, has overseen three successive years of increasing profitability for the company’s liner business, culminating in the $2.2 billion in operating profit it made in 2014. That capped a three-year stretch in which Maersk has m...

Container trade to and from the U.S. in 2015 will grow much more slowly than last year, in part because of the effect of congestion and labor turmoil at West Coast ports, according to Mario Moreno, an economist for the JOC and IHS. Last year U.S. containerized seaport volumes grew 6 percent, “but the outlook for 2015 looks less bright,” despite an upturn in the U.S. economy and accelerated home building and consumer spending, said Moreno at the TPM transpacific maritime conferen...

The global trade management solutions provider Amber Road said Monday it has acquired ecVision, a cloud-based provider of global sourcing and collaborative supply chain solutions for brand-focused companies. Amber Road will pay an initial $24 million for ecVision, up to $9 million in potential additional payments over the next two years based upon achievement of certain revenue milestones and employee retention. “This acquisition delivers value for Amber Road custom...

Karl Gernandt, the chairman of Kuehne + Nagel, said Monday there is need for more reliable for container shipping services with more reliable transit times. “Getting services up to at least 90 percent reliability, or at least multiple product offerings with one level providing 90 percent or better at an appropriate price would be a win-win for shippers and carriers,” said Gernandt in a keynote address at TPM, the transpacific maritime conference in Long Beach, Calif. &nbsp...

A congressional watchdog agency’s report said the Food and Drug Administration has failed to meet its mandate to conduct a certain number of safety inspections of overseas facilities that export food to the United States. The mandate, which is part of the Food Safety Modernization Act, required the FDA to inspect at least 600 foreign food facilities starting in 2011 and at least twice that number for the next five years thereafter. “FDA is not currently keepin...

National Retail Federation President Matthew Shay decried the “near death experience” of shippers using West Coast ports over the past nine months and said the system of negotiating longshore labor contracts must change to ensure such disruption never occurs again. Speaking at the TPM 2015 conference in Long Beach Monday, Shay said it was unreasonable to allow a small group of people to jeopardize the livelihoods of so many attached to retailers and manufacturers that rely on th...

The Department of Homeland Security averted a partial shutdown when the House voted for a one-week funding extension and President Obama signed it before the midnight deadline on Friday. The last-minute development capped a week of political maneuvering centered around efforts by hardline Republicans in the House to block President Obama’s executive order in November to scale back deportations of undocumented workers without criminal histories. Opponents claim the White House ac...

The U.S. Commerce Department last week released data that shows Texas and California firmly in the lead as the nation’s two top exporting states for 2014. Texas’s exports for the year registered at $289 billion and California topped $174.1 billion in export value. The next five top exporting states included Washington ($90.6 billion), Illinois ($68.2 billion), Louisiana ($65.1 billion), Ohio ($52.1 billion), and Georgia ($39.4 billion). Commerce said a total o...

U.S. Gross Domestic Product in the fourth quarter of 2014 slowed to an annual rate of 2.2 percent from 5 percent in the third quarter. The Commerce Department revised downward last month's initial estimate of 2.6 percent as more complete data became available. The deceleration in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected an upturn in imports – which subtract from calculations of domestic productivity – a downturn in federal spending, and deceleration of nonresidential f...

According to a statement from Fremantle Ports, the Maersk Garonne became stuck in soft sand 500 meters off South Mole at about 5 AM local time. Tug boats were able to pull the vessel free by about 8:30 AM. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority will perform a full investigation, but initial assessments indicate that there were no injuries to the crew, no damage to the vessel and no negative environmental effects resulting from the incident. According to ocean...

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines has ordered four containerships with capacity for 20,150 TEUs from Samsung Heavy Industries and has signed a long-term charter for two similar ships from Shoei Kisen Kaisha that will be built by Imabari Shipbuilding. The six ships are scheduled to be delivered in 2017 and will be deployed in the Asia-Europe trade. MOL said the vessels will have energy saving technology to reduce fuel consumption and that the engines will be capable of using LNG a...

International logistics, transportation and freight forwarding company Norbert Dentressangle reported consolidated revenues of 4.67 billion euros (U.S. $5.24 billion) for the full year in 2014. The result represents a 15.8 percent increase from the same period in 2013. Net income for the company was 75.9 million euros in 2014, up 8 percent from 70.1 million euros in 2013. The company attributed the increase in revenue to growth in all three of its business unit – Lo...

Three major chassis providers in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have launched a "gray" chassis pool that will allow 80 percent of the chassis in service at the two ports to be used interchangeably. A lack of chassis, as well as rules about when and where they could be obtained and returned, were seen by trucking companies and shippers as a major reason for the congestion that has plagued the two ports during the past year. Direct ChassisLink Inc. (DCLI), Fl...

Container shipping companies kicked-off 2015 by offering their customers all-time record low schedule reliability, according to the Global Liner Performance report prepared by the consulting firm SeaIntel with data from INTTRA. The report attributed poor performance to both congestion at ports on the U.S. West Coast and implementation of new alliance networks. On-time performance, based on when a ship arrives at berth, decreased to 67.8 percent in January on 10,762 vessel arriva...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is about 12 hours away from a partial shutdown, with its budget caught in the middle of congressional infighting over immigration policy. Officials at DHS sub-agency Customs and Border Protection on Thursday outlined how constrained funding would hamper import and export functions. Routine cargo will continue to be cleared through security procedures, but shipments involving possible trade enforcement violations could detained for a...

The Federal Maritime Commission has allowed the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach to modify an agreement that will allow the ports to discuss and agree on projects and programs that address congestion issues, transportation infrastructure needs and reduce pollution caused by port-related activities. The Port of Los Angeles said the changes to the agreement first filed with the FMC in 2013 will allow the two ports “to address congestion issues such as establishing initia...

A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S will divest its 20.05 percent ownership stake in Danske Bank A/S. The Danish shipping and oil group plans to return the estimated $5.5 billion to its shareholders in the form of an extraordinary cash dividend. The group said in a statement it will also offer its shareholders the opportunity to purchase up to nine Danske Bank shares at the prevailing market price. Meanwhile, the A.P. Moller Holding A/S, a fully owned subsidiary of the A.P. Moll...

FTR’s Shippers Conditions Index increased to a reading of -0.6 in December 2014, according to a statement from the company. The SCI compiles numerous factors affecting the shipping environment, and any reading below zero indicates a “less-than-ideal” environment for shippers. FTR attributed the increase in the SCI primarily to the swift decline in the price of diesel fuel and positive capacity impacts from the reversal of certain Hours of Service rules. The company ...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is receiving high praise from the trade community for facilitating the flow of containers from congested marine terminals since last week’s tentative labor settlement on the West Coast. Officials said Thursday CBP would continue to do so even if funding for the Department of Homeland Security runs out tonight. As promised, CBP is providing extra manpower to carry out cargo security requirements for inbound containers whenever termina...

Labor peace may finally be returning to the West Coast ports, but the cargo delays that occurred because of low productivity were not theoretical. Importers and exporters were hit in their bottom line, and companies lost revenue and incurred extra expenses. Agricultural exporters in particular worry about lost opportunity costs if they can't win back frustrated overseas customers. Retailers likely will swallow the extra costs rather than passing them onto consumers, which will compress their...

The 15 container shipping companies that are members of the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement said they are recommending carriers move forward with two previously announced general rate increases of $600 per 40-foot containers (FEUs) on March 9 and April 9. The carrier discussion agreement cited both congestion that has developed in recent months at West Coast ports during the negotiations between employers and longshoremen over a new contract, and what it expects will be str...

First-year port directors in Long Beach and Seattle on Wednesday announced hires for new positions as part of efforts to instill business philosophies, such as customer service, gained from experience in the private sector. The Port of Long Beach has appointed two industry veterans to newly created management positions to enhance cargo flow and service. Executive Director Jon Slangerup took the helm last summer without direct port experience. His background was as CEO of FedEx C...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, is working with Democrats on a clean funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security to avoid a partial shutdown of the department at the end of Friday, according to media reports from Capitol Hill. It remains highly uncertain, however, whether House Speaker John Boehner, R-OH, would bring such a bill to a vote in his chamber. Congress only passed a temporary funding bill last year through February - instead of the entire fiscal...

Seaspan Corporation recorded net earnings of $131.25 million for the full year in 2014, down 56.1 percent from $299.03 million in 2013, according to its latest financial statements. Profits for the fourth quarter of 2014 were also down as the company reported net earnings of $27.77 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, a 59.3 percent decrease from $68.23 million for same period in 2013. These results came despite revenue increasing 5.9 percent to $717.2 million for...

Rep. Janice Hahn, D-Calif., on Wednesday called on the Federal Maritime Commission to investigate the Pacific Maritime Association’s decisions during its recent contract negotiations with dockworkers. Specifically, PMA suspended night, weekend and holiday shifts in the weeks before a tentative deal was reached. The multi-employer bargaining unit on the West Coast said it eliminated the off-peak shifts for vessel loading and unloading to concentrate on clearing clogged container ...

MSC will start a new dedicated service between Asia and the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent. The "New Falcon" service will employ eight ships with nominal capacity of 8,000 TEUs and will have the following port rotation: Xingang, Ningbo, Shanghai, Fuzhou, Chiwan, Tanjug Pelepas, Singapore, Colombo, Jebel Ali, Dammam, Jubail, Jebel Ali, Mundra, Nhava Sheva, Singapore, Nansha, and back to Xingang. "Cargo which was booked to sail onboard our previous transshipment ...

The A.P. Moller-Maersk Group had a record $5.2 billion profit in 2014, 38 percent more than the $3.8 billion it earned in 2013. Results were boosted by strong performance from Maersk Line, the world’s largest container carrier, according to the latest financial statements from the group. Maersk Line benefited from both lower fuel cost and its strategy of driving down costs, primarily by deploying larger ships. Maersk Line had profits climb 50 percent to $2.2 billion from $1.5 bi...

The Swiss-based Kuehne + Nagel Group announced a year-over-year increase in gross profits of 0.5 percent to 6.29 million Swiss Francs (U.S. $6.63 million) compared to 2013. Net profits improved 6.1 percent to CHF 644 million in 2014, according to the third-party logistics provider’s latest financial statements. The company said performance improved across all business areas compared to 2013. The ocean freight division of Kuehne + Nagel handled over 3.8 million TEUs ...

The transportation consultancy firm Seabury estimates that annual global ocean freight growth will be 5.3 percent between 2015 and 2018, according to forecasts based on the company’s ocean trade database. Labeling the growth “moderate,” Seabury said that growth still lags well behind annual growth rates for container trade in 2000-2004 (11 percent) and 2004-2008 (8 percent) periods, but well above the "stagnant" growth from 2008-2013 (3.1 percent). Seabury noted tha...

Matson had a profit of $27.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared with $7.3 million in the same 2013 period, in which earnings were reduced by a nearly $10 million settlement for a lawsuit over freight charges. Consolidated revenue for the fourth quarter 2014 was $443.5 million, compared with $410.9 million reported for the fourth quarter 2013. For the full year 2014, Matson reported a profit of $70.8 million, compared with $53.7 million in 2013. Consolidated revenue ...

Famous Pacific Shipping BV launched a new weekly less-than-container load service connecting Rotterdam, Netherlands and St. Petersburg, Russia for general groupage ocean cargo. The Rotterdam-based neutral cargo consolidator said the service “provides a direct alternative to the historic routing via Vilnius,” and decreases transit times from between the two ports from 15 days to 4 days. Customs clearance in Russia will be performed at port, according to FPS, or cargo...

Cargo delays at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach could get worse before they get better, but shippers looking for a faster transportation alternative should be aware that air freight from Asia is fraught with capacity and pricing challenges, UPS officials said Tuesday. The logistics integrator has direct exposure to all sides of the supply chain equation related to West Coast ports, which were subject to work slowdowns and manpower shortages as collective bargaining betwe...

The backlog of cargo at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach means that it may “take us approximately three months to get back to a sense of normalcy,” said Gene Seroka, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. Seroka was one of the several speakers at a press conference held on the deck of the USS Iowa Monday where speakers thanked various individuals for their part in helping the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association reach a ...

The labor slowdown at West Coast ports during contract negotiations likely sliced a full percentage point off of fourth quarter Gross Domestic Product, Deutsche Bank Chief Economist Joseph LaVorgna said. The U.S. economy grew at a 2.6 percent annualized pace in the last three months of the year, according to a preliminary government estimate. In the third quarter, GDP raced forward at 5 percent. LaVorgna based his conclusion on the assumption that without a slowdown...

Funding for the Department of Homeland Security is scheduled to run out on Friday as Republicans in Congress try to use the appropriation process to roll back President Obama’s November executive order granting legal status to about 5 million undocumented immigrants. That will lead to a partial government shutdown in which “non-essential” personnel would be furloughed and the remaining 80 percent of the department, including airport screeners, Border Patrol agents and Customs officers, would...

The operator of Port of Portland, Oregon’s only container terminal, said despite the signing of a tentative contract with the Pacific Maritime Association, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are continuing to snarl operations at its facility. ICTSI Oregon Inc., which operates Terminal 6 in Portland, said “we are currently not seeing a good faith effort by ILWU to bring productivity at Terminal 6 to acceptable levels. Additionally, the ILWU is failing to p...

The tentative deal Friday evening between the West Coast longshoremen’s union and terminal operators fundamentally overhauled the arbitration system that had been a major bone of contention and was necessary because resulting port disruption was causing too many innocent victims, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in a television interview Monday afternoon. Importers and exporters of all stripes were losing money because of the cargo delays as ports filled to capacity with contai...

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez announced Friday night the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association have reached an agreement on a new five-year contract. Perez said container ports up and down the West Coast will resume working "full bore" on Saturday, but added he did not know how long it will take to work off the backlog in container traffic. "They understand the urgency of the task," he said. Monday morning at 7...

The Canadian government on Friday introduced legislation in the House of Commons which it says will enhance rail safety and hold crude oil shippers and their rail transportation providers to a higher standard. The Safe and Accountable Rail Act proposes amendments to the Canada Transportation Act and Railway Safety Act. Changes include a new liability and compensation regime for federally regulated railroads, including minimum insurance requirements, a compensation fund financed ...

The Virginia Port Authority posted its first operating loss – about $1 million – in six months. The result is an improvement over the $4.7 million loss in January 2014, one month before John Reinhart took the reins as chief executive officer, and represents the lowest January operating loss in four years. One of Reinhart’s mandates from state officials is to make the Port of Virginia profitable after years of operating in the red. He and his team have made con...

The Port of Charleston continues to pile up robust year-over-year container business each month. In January, terminals handled 152,917 TEUs, an 18 percent increase in volume compared to January 2014. Container traffic for fiscal year-to-date since July is up 14 percent to 1.07 million standard shipping units over the same period a year ago, with the physical number of boxes moved up 15 percent to 614,372. The operating results released by state of...

Up until the last minute before Friday’s labor settlement at West Coast ports, shippers were publicly decrying being pawns in an economic struggle between dockworkers and management. Many face continued hardship because the cargo backlog is so severe that it will take weeks, and in some cases months, for ports and inland transport providers to work it off, experts say. With a tentative agreement in place, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union is expected to call off th...

No sooner had members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association announced in San Francisco on Friday that they had reached an agreement on a new five-year contract operations across San Francisco Bay came to a halt. The Port of Oakland, which posts regular updates on operations on its website , said work resumed at its terminals “Saturday night, Feb. 21, and continued Sunday morning only to be suspended for the remainder of the day shift...

Crowley will expand its operations at the Port of Jacksonville’s Talleyrand terminal. JaxPort’s board of directors on Monday unanimously approved a 20-year lease with options for two 10-year extensions at Talleyrand, effective Jan. 1, 2017. Crowley will expand its footprint at Talleyrand from 12 to 50 acres and relocate its Puerto Rico service from its private terminal on the St. Mary River. The deal comes in advance of Crowley’s plan to deploy two LNG-powered “Comm...

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez announced Friday night the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association have reached an agreement on a new five-year contract. Perez said container ports up and down the West Coast will resume working "full bore" on Saturday but said he did not know how long it will take to work off the backlog in container traffic. "They understand the urgency of the task," he said. The agreement comes a...

An agreement ending the 10-month contract standoff between the dock workers’ union and management that has crippled West Coast ports could be reached in days rather than weeks now that White House has intervened, Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in globalization, trade and labor issues, predicted Thursday. Last weekend, President Obama dispatched Labor Secretary Thomas Perez to San Francisco to help the International Longshor...

The Port of Los Angeles said that its cargo volumes, like those of Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma , were sharply down in the month of January. At the monthly meeting of the port’s commissioners Thursday, Gene Seroka, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles reported that the preliminary tally is that 487,000 TEUs of containerized cargo moved through the port in January, 29 percent less than the 686,000 TEUs that moved through the port in January 2014. Ser...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the two days of meetings this week in Havana between a U.S. congressional delegation and Cuban government officials “very productive” during a press conference on Thursday. “We were very positively impressed by what we heard here about the future prospects of our relationship, because that is really what this visit is about: it’s about how we go forward,” Pelosi said. Much of the talks centered on expanding teleco...

DHL Global Forwarding will commence a weekly direct less-than-container-load service for ocean freight shipments between Tuticorin, India and Hamburg, Germany. According to a statement from the company, the new LCL service will decrease transit times between the two points 33 days to 26 days. "Trade in goods between India and its number-one EU trade partner Germany is on a positive trend," said Volker Oesau, CEO DHL Global Forwarding Middle Europe. "We're observing ...

The North Carolina State Ports Authority is extending its gate hours at the Port of Wilmington from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. — remaining open through the lunch hour — to increase productivity and keep pace with its volume growth. The extended gate hours will commence Monday, Feb. 23. “Our lack of congestion, efficient turn times and unrivaled customer service has led us to a nearly 20 percent container volume increase in fiscal year 2015 over this same period...

Negotiators from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association will be asked to come to Washington next week if they cannot reach agreement on a new contract. Updating the Port of Los Angeles board of harbor commissioners on contract talks Thursday, Gene Seroka, the port's executive director said “Tonight we have a federally mandated deadline on those negotiations directly from the White House. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez will report back to t...

Container volumes at the Ports of Long Beach, Seattle and Tacoma fell "dramatically" in January, according to statements from the ports. Port of Long Beach said its monthly volumes were 18.8 percent lower than in January 2014, claiming "the dramatic drop in cargo volume is due to congestion and contract issues plaguing the West Coast ports recently." Overall, 429,490 TEUs of containerized cargo moved through the Port of Long Beach in January. Imports numbered 213,66...

International Container Terminal Service, Inc. (ICTSI), operator of Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland, will seek a new ocean liner carrier to serve the Oregon port's container terminal. Container carrier Hanjin announced last week it will end calls at the port, where it has faced interruptions due to a labor-management conflict between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and ICTSI Oregon. "We know that there is substantial market demand in thi...

The freight brokerage and third party logistics services provider XPO Logistics had an operating profit of $42 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, a huge increase over the $1.5 million in profits after tax and interest in same period in 2013. According to financial statements released Wednesday evening , XPO’s revenue in the fourth quarter swelled to $830.7 million, a 223 percent year-over-year increase, fueled by organic growth and several key acquisitions in the contract l...

The U.S. and Canadian governments signed an arrangement Wednesday to proceed with the construction of a new publicly-owned bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit. The terms of the agreement state that the U.S. inspection plaza will be procured as part of a public-private partnership that will design, finance, construct, operate and maintain the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC)/New International Trade Crossing (NITC) project. According to Lisa Raitt, Canada’s...

Members of Local 333 of the International Longshoremen's Association, the largest dockworkers union in the Port of Baltimore, have turned down a proposed local labor contract, according to an article in the Baltimore Sun . Richard Scher, a spokesman for the Port of Baltimore said that despite a lack of a contract, the port expects the union and terminals will continue to operate normally. Members of the union reportedly overwhelmingly rejected the proposed local con...

Government officials stepped up pressure on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association to wrap up contract negotiations as reports from shippers being harmed by slowdowns at West Coast ports continued to roll in. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, who came to San Francisco on Tuesday to encourage a resolution, was joined on Wednesday by Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for meetings with the ILWU and PMA. &nbsp...

The U.S. Labor Department said Secretary Thomas Perez had positive and productive meetings with the leadership of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association on Tuesday. "On behalf of President Obama, Secretary Perez made clear that the dispute has led to a very negative impact on the U.S. economy, and further delay risks tens of thousands of jobs and will cost American businesses hundreds of millions of dollars," the department said in a...

Container shipping rates on intra-Asia trades have fallen to their lowest level in four years, according to Container Freight Rate Insight, published by the consultants Drewry. Drewry’s Intra-Asia Freight Rate Index fell 10 percent in the three months to January 2015 to reach $900 per 40-foot container, its lowest level since the rates were first published in March 2011. The index is a weighted average of spot container freight rates across multiple routes serving intra-Asian tr...